LITTLE CHUTE (NBC 26) -- The Fox Valley Metro Police Department issued a statement Tuesday to address the lack of certain video related to a fatal officer-involved shooting.
The shooting happened September 3rd. Officer Sam Pynenberg shot 34-year-old Eduard Alexis Lopez-Ucles following a police chase that started in Appleton and ended in Kaukauna. Lopez-Ucles died from his injuries in the shooting. Following an investigation involving the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Officer Pynenberg's actions were deemed justified and he will not face criminal charges in the case.
In a news release Monday, the Wisconsin DOJ released photos and videos related to the shooting, including body camera videos from officers who responded to the scene. However, authorities note that there is not video of the shooting itself, despite officers wearing body cameras. The video released by the DOJ shows the moments after the shooting, with a person on the ground (blurred out) and officers pointing their guns, yelling commands.
In a statement Tuesday, Fox Valley Metro Police said Officer Pynenberg’ s body camera was functional but had not been turned on during the chase and subsequent shooting.
"During high stress, dangerous situations such as vehicle pursuits, the officer is more focused on driving safely, monitoring the suspect’s actions and focusing on the overall safety of the public," Chief of Police Daniel Meister stated. "Therefore, it is not uncommon for an officer to forget to push a button to activate their body worn camera."
Tuesday's statement also acknowledges that there are only cameras in some of the department's patrol vehicles and they were not operational. Police cited software programming issues that they were working to fix.
Here is the department's explanation:
"Prior to the officer involved shooting incident, our department was working with the Outagamie County Information Technology Department to resolve these software programming issues. Our department accesses certain information systems that are maintained by Outagamie County. Any programs or hardware that we add and that are integrated with the county system must be integrated into that system by the appropriate Outagamie County personnel. Since the officer involved shooting incident, we have been able to work with the Outagamie County IT Department to resolve this access issue."
The Fox Valley Metro Police Department said it released Tuesday's statement following inquiries about the video.
